YouTube-MP3 throws in the towel, will shut down and hand domain over to record labels

It's the end of the road for one of the world's largest stream-ripping sites

The world’s top YouTube ripping site is shutting down and handing control of its domain over to the RIAA.

As TorrentFreak recounts, a collection of record labels represented by the RIAA took the owners of YouTube-MP3 to court last year over copyright infringement. The labels also alleged that YouTube-MP3 circumvented YouTube’s copying protections, thus violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The site, which receives millions of visitors each day, allows users to convert YouTube videos to MP3 files that can be played on virtually any modern media device.

The lawsuit noted that the site attracted millions of users which in turn generated advertising revenues for its operators.

Less than a year after the lawsuit was filed, the matter has been resolved.

Full details of the settlement aren’t public but we do know that judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiffs (the record labels) on all counts.

TorrentFreak also notes that the site’s owner, Philip Matesanz, agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement and hand over ownership of the YouTube-MP3 domain to one of the record labels. Should he refuse, the site’s registrar will then be ordered to sign over the domain name, we’re told.

There’s even a proposed injunction on the table that would prohibit the site’s owner from creating a similar service in the future.

The site remains online as of this writing but that’s likely only because the proposed judgment and injunction hasn’t yet been signed by the court. Expect that to change in the near future.